"fact he cannot return home. These beings that are close to the gods include the Phaeacians who lived near Cyclopes, whose king, Alcinous, is the great-grandson of the king of the giants, Eurymedon, and the grandson of Poseidon. Some of the other characters that Odysseus encounters are Polyphemus who is the cyclops son of Poseidon, God of Oceans, Circe who is the sorceress daughter of the Sun that turns men into animals, Calypso who is a goddess, and the Laestrygonians who are cannibalistic giants. Throughout the course of the epic, Odysseus encounters several examples of ""xenia"" (""guest-friendship""), which provide models"
"woman who can turn men into animals: Ishtar (for Gilgamesh) and Circe (for Odysseus). In the ""Odyssey"", Odysseus blinds a giant Cyclops named Polyphemus, an incident which bears similarities to Gilgamesh's slaying of Humbaba in the ""Epic of Gilgamesh"". Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus visit the Underworld and both find themselves unhappy whilst living in an otherworldly paradise in the presence of an attractive woman: Siduri (for Gilgamesh) and Calypso (for Odysseus). Finally, both heroes have an opportunity for immortality but miss it (Gilgamesh when he loses the plant, and Odysseus when he leaves Calypso's island). In the Qumran scroll known"
"(advice which Odysseus' men did not follow which led to Odysseus' men getting killed by Zeus' thunderbolts during a storm). Connections with the paired serpents on the caduceus are often made (Brisson 1976:55–57). Tiresias In Greek mythology, Tiresias (; , ""Teiresias"") was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd and the nymph Chariclo. Tiresias participated fully in seven generations in Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus himself. Eighteen allusions to mythic Tiresias, noted by Luc Brisson, fall into three groups:"
"them with the extraordinary ability to produce oil, corn, and wine from the ground or merely by touch. When the Greek fleet set out to make war in Troy, it was the Oenotropae who stocked their ships, and Agamemnon was so impressed with this that he abducted them in order to feed the Greek army. The daughters escaped, but their brother betrayed them again to the Greeks. As they were about to be bound, however, Dionysus saved them by turning them into white doves. Oenotropae In Greek mythology, the Oenotropae (, ""the women who change (into) wine"") or Oenotrophae (,"
"her husband. After Tereus ate Itys, the sisters presented him with the severed head of his son, and he became aware of their conspiracy and his cannibalistic meal. He snatched up an axe and pursued them with the intent to kill the sisters. They fled but were almost overtaken by Tereus at Daulia in Phocis. In desperation, they prayed to the gods to be turned into birds and escape Tereus' rage and vengeance. The gods transformed Procne into a swallow and Philomela into a nightingale. Subsequently, the gods would transform Tereus into a hoopoe. It is typical for myths from"
"Greek mythology, the goddess Hecate is said to have invented aconite, which Athena used to transform Arachne into a spider. Also, Medea attempted to poison Theseus with a cup of wine poisoned with wolf's bane. The kyōgen (traditional Japanese comedy) play , which is well-known and frequently taught in Japan, is centered on dried aconite root used for traditional Chinese medicine. Taken from Shasekishu, a 13th-century anthology collected by Mujū, the story describes servants who decide that the dried aconite root is really sugar, and suffer unpleasant though nonlethal symptoms after eating it. Shakespeare, in ""Henry IV Part II"" Act"
"the only mortal Gorgon, Medusa, whose gaze turned people to stone. Ovid's account of Medusa's mortality tells that she had once been a woman, vain of her beautiful hair, who was raped by Poseidon in the Temple of Athena. In punishment for the desecration of her temple, Athena had changed Medusa's hair into hideous snakes ""that she may alarm her surprised foes with terror"". Athena instructed Perseus to find the Hesperides, who were entrusted with weapons needed to defeat the Gorgon. Following Athena's guidance, Perseus sought the Graeae, sisters of the Gorgons, to demand the whereabouts of the Hesperides, the"
"added the vice of violent jealousy to her bad qualities and made her a figure of fear as well as of desire. Later male interpretations were to take the metamorphoses she inflicted not just as reflecting a temptation to bestiality but as an emasculatory threat. In botany the Circaea are plants belonging to the enchanter's nightshade genus. The name was given by botanists in the late 16th century in the belief that this was the herb used by Circe to charm Odysseus' companions. Medical historians have speculated that the transformation to pigs was not intended literally but refers to anticholinergic"
"Trojan horse. He and his crew, including Apu, Lenny, Moe, Professor Frink and Carl, kill all of Troy's citizens and win. However, he refuses to sacrifice a sheep, angering the gods, Zeus (Mayor Quimby), Dionysus (Barney), and Poseidon (Captain Horatio McCallister). Dionysus tries to destroy Odysseus with a lightning bolt, but misses and instead destroys the island of Atlantis. Poseidon literally blows Odysseus and his crew to the Sirens (Patty and Selma) and visit Circe (Lindsey Naegle), who turns his crew into pigs, whom Odysseus eats. Circe orders Odysseus to go through Hades, crossing the River Styx (which has the"
"island where Aeolus (Michael J. Pollard) provides him with a bag of wind to help him home, instructing him to open it when he gets close to Ithaca. One of his men opens it prematurely blowing them off course. Next, they stop at the island of Circe (Bernadette Peters), a beautiful witch, who turns his men into animals and blackmails him into sleeping with her. Odysseus is told of Circe's magic by Hermes (Freddy Douglas), who helps him avoid being transformed as well. Circe tells him to go to the Underworld next, and only then does Odysseus realize that he"
"transforming Tiresias into a woman. Later the sentence was remitted, due to either trampling on the mating snakes or avoiding them, and she became male again. In another version, Tiresias' sex-change was caused by an argument between Zeus and Hera, on which they debated whether a male or a female had greater pleasure in sex, so they transformed him to a female to experiment. Aphroditus was an androgynous Aphrodite from Cyprus, in later mythology became known as Hermaphroditus (also the namesake of the word ""hermaphrodite"") the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. LGBT themes in classical mythology Greco-Roman mythology features male"
"the labyrinth and safely out again. Among the Olympians, the weaver goddess is Athena, who, despite her role, was bested by her acolyte Arachne, who was turned later into a weaving spider. The daughters of Minyas, Alcithoe, Leuconoe and their sister, defied Dionysus and honored Athena in their weaving instead of joining his festival. A woven peplum, laid upon the knees of the goddess's iconic image, was central to festivals honoring both Athena at Athens, and Hera. In Homer's legend of the Odyssey, Penelope the faithful wife of Odysseus was a weaver, weaving her design for a shroud by day,"
"into pigs. Italian fairy tales put them into the hands of the powerful fairies by the late Middle Ages. In the 1700s ballads ""Allison Gross"" and ""The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea"", the villainesses use silver wands to transform their victims into animals, in emulation of the Odyssey that preceded them. In C. S. Lewis's 1950 novel ""The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"", the White Witch's most feared weapon is her wand, whose magic is capable of turning people into stone. This, again, employs the Odysseyan motif of an evil female witch who uses a magic"
"during that night, which portended war and sedition for mankind. As for her sons, Oreius was turned into a ""bird called ""lagōs"""" (hypothetically translated as an ""eagle owl"") regarded as ill omen, and Agrius was turned into a vulture, a despised carrion-eating bird. In a small act of mercy, Ares and Hermes heeded the female servant’s prayer where she had no involvement in the Bear Twins' actions and decided not to transform her into a bird heralding evil for mankind. Instead, she was transformed into a woodpecker (supposedly a sign of good luck if seen before a hunt). The story"
"turn anyone who looked at them to stone. According to Ovid (""Metamorphoses""), a Roman poet writing in 8 AD, who was noted for accuracy regarding the Greek myths, Medusa alone had serpents in her hair, and he explained that this was due to Athena (Roman Minerva) cursing her. Medusa had copulated with Poseidon (Roman Neptune) in a temple of Athena after he was aroused by the golden color of Medusa's hair. Athena therefore changed the enticing golden locks into serpents. Diodorus and Palaephatus mention that the Gorgons lived in the Gorgades, islands in the Aethiopian Sea. The main island was"
"Aeaea, and turned the hero Odysseus' men into pigs, was based on Sersi. It was Sersi, under the name of Circe, who imprisoned the imps in Pandora's Box in ancient times. Unlike the majority of her fellow Eternals, who stay in their hidden cities, Sersi revels in her humanity, and has lived amongst humans more than any other Eternal, save the Forgotten One. Thus, it is no surprise to find that Sersi has lived in various places of historical importance, from Nero's Rome, to Camelot, the Court of the legendary King Arthur, where she helped Merlin the magician to defeat"
"she is most known for giving birth to Clytemnestra, Helen, Pollux, and Castor. The most common myth claims that Zeus transformed himself into a swan to couple with Leda. Some versions claim that she loved Zeus and willing had sexual relations with him, while other versions claim she was seduced and therefore was not willing. That same night, she coupled with Tyndareus also. Leda then gave birth to four children at the same time. The two pairs of twins resulted in Helen and Pollux belonging to Zeus, and Clytemnestra and Castor belonging to Tyndareus. Though each pair is attributed to"
"wins the contest. Having done so, he proceeds to slaughter the suitors (beginning with Antinous whom he finds drinking from Odysseus' cup) with help from Telemachus and two of Odysseus' servants, Eumaeus the swineherd and Philoetius the cowherd. Odysseus tells the serving women who slept with the suitors to clean up the mess of corpses and then has those women hanged in terror. He tells Telemachus that he will replenish his stocks by raiding nearby islands. Odysseus has now revealed himself in all his glory (with a little makeover by Athena); yet Penelope cannot believe that her husband has really"
"them had with Odysseus. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into wild beasts. In Homer's ""Odyssey"", Circe is described as living in a mansion that stands in the middle of a clearing in a dense wood. Around the house prowled strangely docile lions and wolves, the drugged victims of her sorcery; they were not dangerous, and fawned on all newcomers. Circe worked at a huge loom. She invited Odysseus' crew to a feast of familiar"
"Hera, Athena was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War. She plays an active role in the ""Iliad"", in which she assists the Achaeans and, in the ""Odyssey"", she is the divine counselor to Odysseus. In the later writings of the Roman poet Ovid, Athena was said to have competed against the mortal Arachne in a weaving competition, afterwards transforming Arachne into the first spider; Ovid also describes how she transformed Medusa into a Gorgon after witnessing her being raped by Poseidon in her temple. Since the Renaissance, Athena has become an"
"to strangle him and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus before any Trojan heeds his warning. According to Apollodorus the two serpents were sent by Apollo, whom Laocoon had insulted by sleeping with his wife in front of the ""divine image"". In the ""Odyssey"", Homer says that Helen of Troy also guesses the plot and tries to trick and uncover the Greek soldiers inside the horse by imitating the voices of their wives, and Anticlus attempts to answer, but Odysseus shuts his mouth with his hand. King Priam's daughter Cassandra, the soothsayer of Troy, insists that the horse will be the"
"(masculine rather than generic), is also used to designate shapeshifters; despite its root, it is used to indicate female shapeshifters as well. While the popular idea of a shapeshifter is of a human being who turns into something else, there are numerous stories about animals that can transform themselves as well. Examples of shapeshifting in classical literature include many examples in Ovid's ""Metamorphoses"", Circe's transforming of Odysseus' men to pigs in Homer's ""The Odyssey"", and Apuleius's Lucius becoming a donkey in ""The Golden Ass"". Proteus was noted among the gods for his shapeshifting; both Menelaus and Aristaeus seized him to"
"Pygmy (Greek mythology) The Pygmies ( ""Pygmaioi"", from the adjective πυγμαῖος from πυγμή ""pygmē"", ""the length of the forearm"") were a tribe of diminutive humans in Greek mythology. According to the Iliad, they were involved in a constant war with the cranes, which migrated in winter to their homeland on the southern shores of the earth-encircling river Oceanus. One story describes the origin of the age-old battle, speaking of a Pygmy Queen named Gerana who offended the goddess Hera with her boasts of superior beauty, and was transformed into a crane. In art the scene was popular with little Pygmies"
"mention the transformation and one of the characters complains of the impossibility of scratching his face now that he is a pig. Some say she was exiled to the solitary island of Aeaea by her subjects and her father Helios for killing her husband, the prince of Colchis. Later traditions tell of her leaving or even destroying the island and moving to Italy, where she was identified with Cape Circeo. The theme of turning men into a variety of animals was elaborated by later writers, especially in Latin. In Virgil's ""Aeneid"", Aeneas skirts the Italian island where Circe now dwells,"
"Aega (mythology) In Greek mythology, Aega (Greek: ) or Pine or Cynosura or Melissa was, according to Hyginus, a daughter of Olenus, who was a descendant of Hephaestus. Aega and her sister Helice nursed the infant Zeus in Crete, and the former was afterwards changed by the god into the constellation called Capella. According to other traditions mentioned by Hyginus, Aega was a daughter of Melisseus, king of Crete, and was chosen to suckle the infant Zeus; but as she was found unable to do it, the service was performed by the goat Amalthea. Hyginus also reports a tradition that"
"eighth circles of Hell, from Cocytus, the Ninth Circle. He is chained. Aloadae In Greek mythology, the Aloadae () or Aloads (Ancient Greek: Ἀλωάδαι ""Aloadai"") were Otus or Otos (Ὦτος means ""insatiate"") and Ephialtes (Ἐφιάλτης ""nightmare""), sons of Iphimedia, wife of Aloeus, by Poseidon, whom she induced to make her pregnant by going to the seashore and disporting herself in the surf or scooping seawater into her bosom. From Aloeus they received their patronymic, the Aloadae. They were strong and aggressive giants, growing by nine fingers every month nine fathoms tall at age nine, and only outshone in beauty by"
"tricking him into eating a sacrifice mixed with human flesh. In punishment, Zeus slew Lycaon and his fifty sons. Other sources, including the Roman poet Ovid, claim instead that Lycaon’s punishment was transformation into a wolf, an early example of lycanthropy. According to Pausanias and the Greek historian Polybius, an inscribed pillar (""stele"") was erected near the altar of Zeus on Mt. Lykaion during the Second Messenian War, a revolt against the Spartans. The inscription supposedly commemorated the execution of Aristocrates of Arcadia, who had betrayed the Messenian hero Aristomenes at the battle of the Great Trench. Thucydides, a Greek"
"to the goat which was believed to have suckled the infant Zeus in Crete. Aega (mythology) In Greek mythology, Aega (Greek: ) or Pine or Cynosura or Melissa was, according to Hyginus, a daughter of Olenus, who was a descendant of Hephaestus. Aega and her sister Helice nursed the infant Zeus in Crete, and the former was afterwards changed by the god into the constellation called Capella. According to other traditions mentioned by Hyginus, Aega was a daughter of Melisseus, king of Crete, and was chosen to suckle the infant Zeus; but as she was found unable to do it,"
"the hamadryads of the woods on Mount Oeta. The nymphs taught her to sing hymns to the gods and to dance. On one occasion, Dryope was seen by Apollo. In order to win her favours the god turned himself into a tortoise, of which the girls made a pet. The nymphs played with the animal and when Dryope had the tortoise on her lap, Apollo turned into a snake. The nymphs then got scared and abandoned her, and she and Apollo mated. Eventually she gave birth to her son Amphissus. Soon after Dryope married Andraemon, son of Oxylus. Amphissus eventually"
"Tiresias In Greek mythology, Tiresias (; , ""Teiresias"") was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd and the nymph Chariclo. Tiresias participated fully in seven generations in Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus himself. Eighteen allusions to mythic Tiresias, noted by Luc Brisson, fall into three groups: one, in two episodes, recounts Tiresias' sex-change and his encounter with Zeus and Hera; a second group recounts his blinding by Athena; a third, all but lost, seems to have recounted the misadventures"
"Tereus, Itys. All were changed to birds, the murderous mother to a nightingale. Itylus In Greek mythology, Itylus or Itylos (Ancient Greek: Ἴτυλον), was the son of Aedon, daughter of Pandareus of Ephesus and wife of King Zethus of Thebes. Envious of Niobe, the wife of her husband's brother Amphion, who had six sons and six daughters, she formed the plan of killing the eldest of Niobe's sons, but by mistake slew her own son Itylus. Zeus relieved her grief by changing her into a nightingale, whose melancholy tunes are represented by the poet as Aëdon's lamentations about her child."
"all-seeing Helios spies on them and tells Hephaestus, who ensnares the two lovers in nets invisibly fine, to punish them. In the ""Odyssey"", Odysseus and his surviving crew land on Thrinacia, an island sacred to the sun god, whom Circe names Hyperion rather than Helios. There, the sacred red cattle of the Sun were kept: Though Odysseus warns his men, when supplies run short they impiously kill and eat some of the cattle of the Sun. The guardians of the island, Helios' daughters, tell their father about this. Helios appeals to Zeus telling them to dispose of Odysseus' men or"
"the fall of Troy. Polydorus, the youngest son of Priam and Hecuba, is sent to King Polymestor for safekeeping, but when Troy falls, Polymestor murders Polydorus. Hecuba learns of this, and when Polymestor comes to the fallen city, Hecuba, by trickery, blinds him and kills his two sons. A third story says that when she was given to Odysseus as a slave, she snarled and cursed at him, so the gods turned her into a dog, allowing her to escape. In another tradition, Hecuba went mad upon seeing the corpses of her children Polydorus and Polyxena. Dante described this episode,"